Comedy star Keyla Monterroso Mejia is only shining brighter

When I call up actor Keyla Monterroso Mejia, she appears promptly on my screen, flanked by a mass of cardboard boxes.

The 26-year-old rising star, who made splashy appearances in such recently released films as “One of Them Days” and “You’re Cordially Invited,” has yet to unpack her belongings in her new Inland Empire home. The visible clutter sets off a contagious, slightly embarrassed giggle, which she muffles with her hands. Like most of her onscreen characters, the doe-eyed comedian emits an innocent joy palpable even through a Zoom call.

“Clocked,” she says in sassy Gen-Z fashion.

Her big home purchase is a testament to the work she has put in over the years, first as the seriously hysterical aspiring actor in HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” then as a childlike teacher’s aide in Hulu’s “Abbott Elementary.”

“I’m becoming independent at 27, that’s crazy,” she says, with a nod to her 27th birthday later this month. “Coming from living in a back house with my mom to being able to have my own place and a space this big is really nice! So I’m very grateful.”

In Monterroso Mejia’s defense, she has been too busy with new projects of late to attend to the stacks of boxes behind her. She’s due to appear in Mindy Kaling’s Netflix comedy series “Running Point” (out Feb. 27), will support Seth Rogen in upcoming Apple TV show “The Studio” (March 26) and has joined the Season 4 cast of “Acapulco,” a bilingual comedy series led by Mexican star Eugenio Derbez.

Monterroso Mejia also is coming down from her most internet-viral moment, taken from the critically acclaimed buddy comedy “One of Them Days,” which was directed by Lawrence Lamont and produced by Issa Rae. In it, she plays Kathy, a fast-cash loan consultant, opposite Keke Palmer (as Dreux) and SZA (as Alyssa), who are looking for last-minute ideas to come up with rent money.

A clip of their shared cubicle scene — in which loan shark Kathy rags on Dreux’s low credit score — has captured more than 9.2 million views on Instagram since the film’s Jan. 17 release.

“ I didn’t think people were going to notice or be so receptive,” says Monterroso Mejia. “But for some reason people received it so well and messaged me with really kind things.”

Despite appearing for only a couple of minutes onscreen, she likens the scene’s virality to the sensation of a popcorn kettle, which randomly starts popping under pressure. Monterroso Mejia’s standout performance was not lost on Rae, whose production company Hoorae and management company ColorCreative backed the film.

“Keyla has a gift of making the relatably ordinary, extraordinarily funny,” Rae told De Los over email. “The entire team jumped at the chance to cast her and she is part of my absolute favorite scene in the movie.”

Monterroso Mejia’s physical humor also is apparent in the Amazon Prime comedy “You’re Cordially Invited,” directed by Nick Stroller. Will Ferrell stars as Jim, who accidentally books his daughter Jenni’s wedding on the same day that Margot (Reese Witherspoon) pencils in her sister’s big day — a clerical error that causes disarray when the two parties decide to share the venue.

Monterroso Mejia plays Heather, who as the maid of honor and de facto wedding planner to Jenni (played by Geraldine Viswanathan), neglects to doublecheck the dates due to the crippling anxiety she gets from phone calls. Heather’s misstep leads to a one-way angsty screaming match between her and Jim.

“ Her comedic rhythm is just like off in a way that is really compelling as a viewer. I haven’t really run into it before,” Stroller told De Los on a recent phone call.

Monterroso Mejia’s babyish mannerisms, alongside Ferrell’s authoritative parental posture, make for some of the film’s funniest scenes, one of which involves her leisurely reading Dr. Seuss’s “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” at the altar.

“ It’s not inherently funny to read that book, it’s just a Dr. Seuss book,” added Stroller. “But she really imbued it with this weird character.”

The set experience felt surreal at times for Monterroso Mejia, who recalls closing her eyes at one point toward the end of filming and listening to the sounds of Ferrell’s laughter, letting it sink in that she was no longer just a viewer of his work but a collaborator and colleague.

“It clicked in my head: ‘You watched him on TV. … What the heck is happening?’” says Monterroso Mejia of working with the comedy king of “Saturday Night Live” and “Elf” fame.

“Mind you, I had already worked with him, but it wasn’t until the end of the movie that I realized that I had worked with an icon,” she adds.

Monterroso Mejia possesses a profound humility about all her work, chalking up her acting bona fides to simple good luck. (Never mind her natural ability to buoy an otherwise flat scene with her cartoonishly wide-eyed grin.) To her, there has to be “something bigger” at play that’s granted her access to work with stars like Larry David, Quinta Brunson, Seth Rogen and more — something written in the stars.

(Shelby Goldstein)

She doesn’t mean it “in a self-deprecating way,” she says. “There [are] people who are more talented, people who are super beautiful and more traditionally made for what you would see on camera.”

The call to act came to Monterroso Mejia when she was a first-year student at Chino Hills High School. She then transferred to the School of Arts and Enterprise in Pomona and finished her education through homeschooling in the San Fernando Valley so that she could attend an acting program nearby.

“I don’t know what the hell possessed me. I was just like, ‘F— it, I want to be an actress,’” she recalls. “And I remember I said it out loud and to the wall and went for it.”

But her peers at school were not as supportive of her acting pursuits. She comes from a traditional Mexican and Guatemalan household of barbers and construction workers where her parents were initially confused about her decision to act, but she says they later came around to the idea.

The only person who believed in her abilities from the start was her younger brother Nathan. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the family lived in her aunt’s back house, he gave up his room so she could use it as for self-tape auditions. Now, Nathan is her designated plus-one at any red-carpet event or screening she’s invited to.

“It takes one person to believe in you,” she said. “I remember anytime auditions didn’t go my way, I would cry and cry and he would tell me it’s a waste of time to cry because [my breakthrough] is going to happen.”

Her brother was right. Seven years after a long haul of failed auditions, Monterroso Mejia would receive her first mainstream credit for the long-running Emmy-winning HBO series “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” where she plays Maria Sofia Estrada, a convincingly horrible aspiring actress who lands a starring role in Larry David’s autobiographical TV show after her father blackmails him.

Taking a page from the straight-faced awkward Aubrey Plaza playbook, Monterroso Mejia leaned into her weirdness, sexualizing a tongue-twister activity through the literal sense of wiggling her tongue around her mouth in an unnaturally gross manner — ironically a fit for the show’s tongue-in-cheek comedy.

“I didn’t want to put myself into it. I  was like, ‘Oh no, I’m not interesting. I’m weird. This “me” is not good enough,’” she said. “ It wasn’t until I started bringing myself [into the role] that it started to work.”

Credits on the legacy show paved the way for her lead role in Netflix’s “Freeridge,” a teenage drama-comedy and spinoff series from cult favorite “On My Block.” In it, she plays Gloria Salazar, the eldest daughter and motherly leader of a friend group seeking to reverse a curse. Though it was a brief one-season stint, she considers the opportunity a “gift.”

Then unexpectedly came “Abbott Elementary,” the Emmy-winning comedy created by Brunson. Monterroso Mejia was handpicked for the Season 2 recurring role of Ashley Garcia, an immature aide for the hard-as-nails struggling teacher Melissa Schemmenti (Lisa Ann Walter).

(Gilles Mingasson / ABC)

“It’s really stunning when someone makes your jaw drop and you go, ‘Who is this and where are they from?’” said Brunson on the phone. She first took notice of Monterroso Mejia’s kooky humor in “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

“When you have someone as talented as her, who’s really funny and really capable of being uniquely offbeat, it adds to what you can do for the character,” Brunson added. “To me, it doesn’t matter if someone is really huge. It’s about talent and I just think she’s so talented.”

Gratitude is an overstatement in Monterroso Mejia’s long-winded litany, a sentiment she repeats over and over again when recalling her past and future acting opportunities.

She has much to look forward to: a minor role in Kaling’s basketball comedy “Running Point,” about a woman-led basketball franchise, which premieres Feb. 27 on Netflix, as well as a recurring role in Rogen’s shaky-cam series “The Studio,” about a distressed film executive, which premieres March 26 on Apple TV. She hints that “The Studio” will offer “a different type of comedy” than what she has previously excelled at.

Even as she continues to level up in her career, Monterroso Mejia won’t take any of it for granted.

“ Life surprises me every time with things that I didn’t even think were possible for myself,” she says. “So I feel like in that sense, I’m going to keep going. I’m ready to receive whatever you want to throw my way.”